Turning From Abortion to LIFE

An Answered Prayer

It wasn’t too long after Isaac began to pray for a brother that Noah’s life began. Tiny, but completely Noah, the same growing body he would have for all his days on earth. Even though this was my fifth child, as I experienced the first hints of pregnancy, I was awestruck by the thought that this sacred miracle might be taking place.

By the time we went on our family camping vacation, Noah was making his presence known! I could barely drag myself out of the camper to the beach. Then he whispered, “I’m here,” by sending me to the bathroom three times a night. He had taken over my bladder space. Still I doubted. I laugh went I look back now because I remember I kept thinking, “If I’m not pregnant I must be sick with some mysterious disease!”

My husband Steve wanted to wait to take a pregnancy test. Steve is synonymous with patience, not I. It was easy for him to want to wait I thought, he didn’t have another person in his body. But I willingly hid the pregnancy test I had snuck off to buy in the camper and waited for him. The second we got home from camping I raced off to the bathroom without consulting him again! It was then I knew for certain that my body was harboring a tiny womb dweller.

When you look down at the positive pregnancy test there lies a whole host of variables and unknowns. New life alters your course and the course of many, every time it is an incredible faith journey into the thickly veiled future.

Receiving the gift of a baby can feel overwhelming even in ideal circumstances. A helpless and tiny new being, your own child, takes you by the hand – by the heart – making it necessary to reorder life plans and create a safe space in the world for their existence. Conceiving a baby reveals the unique vulnerabilities of possessing a womb, of being a woman. Whether planned or unplanned, the Lord entrusts us with our children, extending an invitation to partner with him. More than an invitation, it is a blessed obligation. Some aspects of the relationship are temporal – how long you will carry this brand new human in your body. Some are eternal – how long your heart and life will be intimately connected.

There is no escaping a response to life. From here on out there is only birth or death. Connected. Invited.

No one can take your place as a birth mother. This is the beauty and price of the calling to be Mother, the gift offered only to women.

We were all once small as a spark, weak and brand new. Through no choice of our own we came into existence in a womb. We were all carried by our mothers.

At that time, I wondered many things about my baby. Was this the brother Isaac had prayed for? Or another daughter? And if this were a son, could he possibly be that young man I saw in an unforgettable dream?

I would only be able to find the answer to one of my questions have at my 20 week ultrasound.

The womb is called the “secret place” by David the Psalmist. He declared, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts God!” Psalm 139:13-17

Called to Stand

When Noah was about 8 weeks old in the womb, the 40 Days for Life Fall 2015 campaign was beginning. I determined to participate in the greatest capacity that I was able, hoping to go as often as possible to the sidewalk outside the clinic to peacefully pray. Isaac, Lily, Buttercup (our new puppy) and I could make it there after I dropped Kaitlin, Olivia, and their cousin Star off at school, before I had to go to work. (I was a part time Nanny/Houskeeper.)

I noticed in the past two years that when 40 Days for Life was taking place my prolife film and work made measurable progress. When the 40 Days ended the work stalled. Doesn’t that make perfect sense? God’s people were in unity, globally praying and fasting to end abortion during the campaigns.

‘Maybe God will give me the direction I need as I pray for the doctor I wrote it for. Besides that, it is important for the church to show up in love, praying for God to intervene in this place.’ I thought.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12

In the Memorial Room at 72 Ransom, short pro-life film, Through My Tears – A Letter to my Doctor, was shot in 2012.

Besides that, it was absolutely important that the church show up in love praying for God to intervene in this place.

There are so many ways people can intervene in a crisis pregnancy. It has to happen long before a woman gets to a clinic. Picketing and signs are terrorist activities. It is cruel.

Let’s make a world where daddies are committed to their unborn babies…maybe where we do not accept interpersonal violence…and DEFINITELY one where we do not shame single mothers. These are the things that can make a difference in this very complicated issue.